Pie crust dough is difficult and time consuming to make at home. The flakiness of the baked crust depends upon many variables such as the temperature of the shortening when added to the dough and the amount of effort which is exerted when mixing the dough. Due to these often unnoticed variables, pie crust is quite unpredictable. For instance the same recipe may yield a flaky, light crust on one occasion and on another occasion the same recipe may yield a heavy, dense crust.
Frozen and refrigerated doughs have become increasingly popular with consumers due to the predictability of commercial pie crusts along with the time which is saved when one does not have to mix and sheet the dough. Unbaked doughs are available in many shapes and forms; some dough is sold preformed into a pie pan while other dough is sold flat. An example of a commercially available flat pie crust dough is Pillsbury's "All Ready Pie Crust" which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,378. The flat dough is more desirable since it allows consumers to use the dough for wider purposes than just for pies. For instance, consumers are able to shape the flat dough into whatever form they choose to make items such as quiches, hors d'oeuvres, tarts, or make two-crust pies without the hassle of making the dough themselves.
Problems do exist with flat dough and three problems become immediately apparent. First, in order to save on packaging and shipping costs it is of benefit to the manufacturer to fold the flat dough to reduce the size of the packaged dough. However, when the dough is folded back on itself one encounters the problem of the dough adhering to itself and thereby becoming impossible to unfold by the consumer. To eliminate this problem manufacturers have utilized slip sheets between dough surfaces. The dough is easily unfolded and ready for use by the consumer once the slip sheet is peeled from the dough. Employing slip sheets has overcome the problem of the dough adhering to itself but the slip sheets have increased production costs of flat refrigerated doughs.
The second problem encountered with folding dough is that the dough develops cracks along the fold lines which create fissures in the baked product. Consumers find this cracking to be unacceptable. In order to alleviate cracking, the manufacturer can add more shortening or water to the dough which creates a more pliable dough which is less likely to crack upon folding. This seems like an easy enough solution, however, with the addition of an increased amount of shortening or water the third problem of flat dough is created. That is, the dough does not hold its form during baking and retracts down the inclined sides of the pie pan. Although the increased shortening or water content creates a more pliable dough which eliminates cracking, it also creates a more pliable dough which is less likely to hold its shape during baking. Therefore, the manufacturer walks a very thin line between adding enough shortening to eliminate cracking of the folded dough yet not adding too much shortening so that the dough will not maintain its shape during baking.
It is well known in the refrigerated dough industry to use rice flour as a separating agent. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,064 which discusses using rice flour to separate pressurized refrigerated biscuit dough. Rice flour is desirable because it does not become gummy when introduced to moisture as does wheat flour. It was surprisingly found while testing rice flour as an alternative separating agent on flat refrigerated dough that application of the rice flour greatly improved baked dough's ability to hold its prebaked shape.